Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1903 — RECORD OF THE WEEK [ARTICLE]

RECORD OF THE WEEK

INDIANA INCIDENTS TERSELY TOLD. Ghoul Rufus Cantrell Confesses Complicity in Several Murders in Indianapolis —Lafayette Police Investigating Mysterious Death. .¶ Rufus Cantrell, known as “King of the Colored Ghouls,” who is serving a sentence in the Indiana reformatory for grave robbing, has made a sworn confession that he had a part in several murders in Indianapolis. He goes into details, giving names and dates. For prudential reasons the authorities refuse to give the names of those accused. Cantrell first refers to the killing of Policeman Watterson, the mystery of which crime has never been solved by the detectives. He also tells of the murder of Walter Johnson, a negro, who came from Newark, N. J. He says the body was taken to an Indianapolis medical college. Cantrell says a man from Pennsylvania named Claude, who had a gold watch, a check for $300 on the Englewood Bank of Chicago, and $250 in cash, was another victim. He gives in detail the story of the murder of Carrie Selvage, who escaped from a hospital in a demented condition and has never been heard from. She was kept in a house for several weeks, Cantrell says, and then murdered and the body buried in a grave that had been robbed. There are so many circumstances in connection with these murders that Cantrell alone appears to know that the police superintendent is very much impressed by the confession.

May Prove to Be Murder. .¶ M. W. Scheibl, a tourist cigarmaker, was found dead at the side of the Monon tracks half a mile south of Lafayette. He had apparently been killed by the cars, for he was frightfully mangled. His body was brought to the city and placed in charge of an undertaker and an hour later Thomas Brant, a local character, was lodged in jail pending an investigation of the causes which led to Scheibl's death. Scheibl belonged in Louisville and carried a union card from that place. He had worked at Logansport for a month and went to Lafayette only a few days ago. He was without money and secured a loan of $4 from the local union. He met Brant and a number of other men and disappeared from the places usually visited by them. Half an hour after the body had been brought to the city, Brant displayed the union book of Scheibl. It was torn and covered with blood. Not a cent of money had been found on the body. Brant had been drinking and suspicion at once pointed toward him as knowing something more than he would tell of Scheibl’s movements after getting the money from ths union. Three Men Marry Sisters. .¶ The marriage of three brothers to three sisters was completed at Columbus, by the marriage of Rev. Herman Steege of Dundee to Miss Ida Bruning of Columbus. Previously Rev. Theodore Steege of Lyons. Neb., and L. J. Steege of Chicago married sisters of Miss Bruning. Wealthy Contractor Killed. .¶ David Tegmyer, a wealthy contractor of Fort Wayne, was run down and killed by a Nickel Plate train. He helped build the Wabash Railroad. All Over the State. .¶ Hammond papers are rejoicing over a prospective boom in manufacturing industries. .¶ Dr. A. M. Cooper, a colored man, is applicant for the position as health officer at Normal City. .¶ West Reddington nutmeg growers are now busy raising a crop and it is said the harvest will be quite good. .¶ W. T. McBride has purchased a valuable piece of real estate in Frankfort and will erect a new $10,000 elevator. .¶ Huntington County Commissioners have appropriated $260,000 for a new court house to be erected there soon. .¶ J. Ambrose Dunkel, an Elwood minister, has received and accepted a call to a Presbyterian church in Saginaw, Mich. .¶ Paoli papers are kicking because they say there is not a good enough water supply at the Orange County court house. .¶ Theodore Trier of Fort Wayne fell from a building in Denver and was instantly killed. He was a cornice maker. .¶ Mrs. Laura Anderson, the free thought writer, was cremated at Cincinnati. Her ashes are to cover rose beds at her home in Oakville. .¶ John Thompson of Peru, who was severely injured in the Durand, Mich., railway wreck, died. This makes the total deaths twenty-four. .¶ The corner stone of the new $20,000 Carnegie library at Brazil was laid under the auspices of the local lodge of Masons. The event was a holiday for the town.

Her. W. H. J. Dargent, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Hammond, has accepted a call to the pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church of Sullsburg, Wis. Just after ronndiog a sharp curve a freight train and passenger train collided ht the Twelfth street crossing of the Big Four Railway in Anderson, injuring seven persons. Dan Dolton of Hammond, the section foreman of the Chicago and Western Indiana tracks, was struck and fatally hurt by the Indianapolis train on the Monon. Dolton was giving orders to some of his men and absent-mindedly stepped on the track as the train approached. Indiana is having a wave of temperance reform. It is announced that during the last year 800 saloons have been put out of business and that about 250 townships in the State have no saloons. Mnch of this has been accomplished through the blanket remonstrance feature of the Nicholson liquor law. Garry Barker, while sleeping on the Wabash tracks at Lafayette, wan run ever and instantly killed by a patsengst train. He was working nights at tha Lafayette Hominy mills and spent bit midnight hour out of doors. He Ml down an the tracks and fell asleep. The Western Rawhide and Betting Company of Hammond has instituted damage proceedings against Henry Schrage of Whiting in the Lake County Superior Court for 1125,000. His-pi an I was destroyed by fire, tha complaint a>